In a "classless" game, there's never a lack of need for alts, at least on my end (wtb birth stones). Plus, alts = bag space.
@ernzor: To me there's room for improvement there. I'd happily swap and tank on my already-geared warsin (Saturday WB runs would start 2 mins after reset...), but I don't want him to be married to the Templar class/spec. And I'm slowly leveling my tank, but it will be a while before he's ready to run ASV--and his runs won't help my current warsin.
@rowbet: I kinda see your point, but I personally don't mind character-bound gear. Leveling up & gearing up helps you learn to play that class and keeps a bit of work involved for that character. It would absolutely make things easier, but hitting max level and instantly having the best gear feels wrong to me... Feels kind of ebay'd.
Just to add a few things...
I know of at least 2 tanks who, since the last update, stopped tanking and then started tanking again because they couldn't find runs (one of them often spams on his warrior for weekly runs with little success), plus another baller tank who now has 2 tanks 'cause it was the quickest way for him to gear his warsin.
This may result in fewer alts, but there are plenty of players who only have one or two characters as it is. People may pay to respec less often as well (probably the main reason this won't happen any time soon), but it certainly wouldn't stop completely--they'd have a spec that works and another to test with.
My former mage is still learning to heal.
Consider again some scenarios this would help: PVE/PVP specs, max aoe/max single target dmg, group play/solo farming & grinding (mentioned here: https://forums.hunte...set-me-off/)...